From Mundane to Magnificent: Contending for the Glorious Plan of God
  by Lynne Hammond
 
Do you want God's best in your life?

If you're a born again believer, I don't even have to wait for you to answer that question. I know what you would say.

I'm certain that your heart's desire is for God's perfect will and plan to be carried out, not only in your own life but in the lives of your family and friends as well. You want to stand with them before Jesus on that great day and hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servants."

That's my desire too. I can hardly bear the thought of failing to finish the course God has planned for me. My heart breaks when I think of myself or someone I love completing this life only to hear Jesus say, "You missed it, child. You never did what I called you to do. You never fulfilled My plan."

I don't know one sincere Christian who would ever want that to happen.

But sometimes we have to face up to facts. And the fact is, despite our good intentions, many of us are settling for far less than God's perfect plan. We don't mean to, of course. It's just that we're so busy with earthly affairs, that we don't give it much thought. We simply live from day to day, allowing our lives to be filled with the mediocre instead of the marvelous things of God. We skip along as though somehow His perfect will is going to fall in our lap like a ripe apple falling off a tree.

But listen, precious saint of God, it won't!

I had to come to terms with that fact in my own life not long ago when I was reviewing the goals I'd set for the year. As I looked at the page on which I'd written them, one goal stood out from all the others. It was the goal of seeing myself grow spiritually. I had wanted to achieve it so badly that I'd put stars and exclamation points around it, marking it as my number one priority.

Yet when the year was through, I had to acknowledge that I hadn't done it. In fact, instead of moving forward spiritually, I had actually slipped back.

You see, following the will of God is like riding a bike. There's no sitting still. You're either peddling onward or you're getting off. And I realized that somewhere along the way, I had gotten off the track of God's will that year.

When I talked to the Lord about the situation, He revealed to me through the thirtieth chapter of Isaiah where I had gone wrong.

For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: In returning [to Me] and resting [in Me] you shall be saved; in quietness and in [trusting] confidence shall be your strength. But you would not. And you said, No! We will speed [our own course] on horses! Therefore you will speed [in flight from your enemies]! You said, We will ride upon swift steeds [doing our own way]!…And therefore the Lord [earnestly] waits [expecting, looking and longing] to be gracious to you; and therefore He lifts Himself up, that He may have mercy on you and show loving kindness to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed…are all those who [earnestly] wait for Him. (verses 15, 16, 18, Amplified Bible)

The moment I read that scripture, I knew exactly what to do. Number one: I had to stop relying on my own human resources and rest in God in quietness and trusting confidence, letting Him be my strength for a change. Number two: I would have to set aside some of my own plans and activities and give Him more of my time.

Do you know the Lord can change any situation in your life if you'll just give Him your time? He can change you; He can change your finances; He can restore your health; He can change your relatives; He can do anything if you'll give Him enough of your time!

I desperately wanted God to change me. So I committed to spend my mornings with Him throughout the rest of the year. Little did I realize what amazing things He was going to do.

When Angels Weep

One morning not long after I made that commitment, I came to the church very early to pray. As I began to walk the floor in the silence of the dimly lit sanctuary, I began to call out to the Lord for changes—not just in my own life but in the lives of every member of the Body of Christ. As I prayed the words, "Change, change!" suddenly my spirit was lifted up.

I saw a vision of angels holding the sides of a scroll upon which was written the great plan of God for this time in which we live. I could see from their countenance the angels were burdened about something. And as they unrolled the scroll, they began to cry out in agony of heart, "Contend! Contend! Contend!"

The words rang out with such fervency, they wrenched my heart and brought me to my knees. Soon more angels came from other places, joining the first angels in their cry. Their tears spilled onto the scroll, shining and sparkling upon it like little white lights.

As I watched the angels weep, I realized they were crying out for me to contend for the plan of God, not just in my own life but for the whole Body of Christ. I realized we all must contend for it. But we hadn't been! We had been sitting back in complacency. Instead of striving for God's best, we had relaxed and settled for far less.

As the vision continued, the scroll was laid flat and people began to gather around it. They knelt down and prayed over it, weeping for this plan to come forth. As they did, the plan began to lift up from the scroll. It began to come alive!

When the vision ended that morning, the word Contend! was burning in my heart. It has been burning there ever since. It's caused me to examine my life to see where I've fallen short of the glory of God.

In the process, I've come to see that falling short of God's glory doesn't necessarily mean getting into gross sin. It can be something as simple as reaching for the aspirin bottle instead of the Bible when a headache hits. It is handling our finances, and our jobs, and our lifestyle in such a way that instead of contrasting with this dark world, we blend into it.

God never, ever called us to blend into this world. Jesus didn't die on Calvary and shed His precious blood so we could blend! He did it so our lives would shine forth with His power and His glory and His purposes. He did it so the world could see Jesus in us!

Don't Give Up—Get Up!

But for that to happen, we must contend. What does it mean to contend? It means to plead for something—something you desire so strongly that you crave it with all of your being. It means to take hold of that desire with a holy desperation and refuse to let go until you see it come to pass.

If you want to see an example of a great contender, read about Jacob. The book of Hosea says about him:

(Jacob) took his brother by the heel in [their mother's] womb, and in the strength [of his manhood] he contended and had power with God. Yes, he had power over the Angel [of the Lord] and prevailed; he wept and sought His favor. He met Him in Bethel, and there [God] spoke with [him and through him with] us…Therefore return to your God! Hold fast to love and mercy, to righteousness and justice, and wait [expectantly] for your God continually! (Hosea 12:3-4, 6)

Jacob was a contender from the very beginning. Even before he was born, he grabbed his twin brother by the heel in an effort to be the first one to emerge from his mother's womb. He wanted the inheritance rights of the firstborn! So he grabbed for and held onto what was highest and best.

Then again, later in his life, he wrestled all night with an angel to get a blessing. (You can read about it in Genesis 32.) He struggled with that angel so long, the angel finally hit him in the hollow of his thigh and put his thigh out of joint.

Most Christians would have stopped at that point. They would have said, "Well, I'm hurting now, so I'm going to quit." Instead of getting up, they would have given up. But not Jacob. He just kept contending for his blessing.

"And he (the angel) said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And (the angel) said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel [or, Contender with God]: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with me, and hast prevailed" (Genesis 32:26-28) (KJV)

Do you know it's not easy to hold onto what is best? It's easier just to be like everybody else. But that's not what God is calling us to do in this hour. He's calling us to be like Jacob and His call is urgent. Why? Because there are elements of God's plan, there are manifestations of His power that will not come to pass unless someone contends for them!

A Glimpse of the Glory

"Well, Sister Lynne, I just don't have the kind of strength Jacob had."

No, you don't. You have more! The Bible says that Jacob contended in the strength of his own manhood and prevailed. He contended for and received the blessing just in his own, human power. You and I are born again. We have the power of the Holy Spirit. We have free access to God's throne of grace through the blood of Jesus. We should be able to accomplish not only as much, but far more than Jacob did!

Why don't we? Maybe it's because we haven't glimpsed with the eyes of our heart just how glorious God's plan and power truly is. Maybe it's because we've settled for the mediocre for so long, we've lost our hunger for the marvelous. We don't contend for the blessing because we don't know how wonderful that blessing can be.

The life of John G. Lake bears evidence to that fact. A great evangelist and man of faith who lived in the early part of this century, John Lake was a fierce contender for God's plan. In his ministry which brought forth some of the most outstanding miracles, signs and wonders of his time, he glimpsed the marvelous nature of the plan of God.

Writing of his ministry in Africa he said, "At Pretoria on one occasion, a couple of years after my baptism in the Spirit, God anointed me in such power…(that) the Spirit of God ran through my person like a river of heavenly fluid. Cancers withered under my touch. Cripples of every type were instantly restored. Works of creation in the bodies of men took place…It was an anointing of power."

Sadly, however, in the years after John Lake left Africa and returned to the United States, he witnessed the waning of that power—not only in his own ministry but throughout the entire Pentecostal movement. "It seems just like things have gotten too nice, too smooth, too modest, too powerless to make it worthwhile for the devil to trample anybody into the ground (anymore)," he wrote. "I guarantee that our souls have wept and our hearts cried and our spirits groaned to once again see the searching life of God seize the souls of men, cast the devil out of them, heal the sick in multitudes, and stir the land with the conviction that God had come and his arm was made bare for the world's salvation."

Pray!…Pray!…Pray!

Throughout his life, John Lake never stopped contending for God's power and plan. He had seen it and he could be happy with nothing less. Sometimes he would spend the whole night walking the floor and praying about it.

On one such night when he couldn't sleep, he left his home in Portland, Oregon, and began to walk through a nearby park. He was met there by an angel who had come in answer to his prayers. The angel revealed many things to him that night—too many to include on these pages—and at the close of his visit, Brother Lake asked one final question. It is a question as relevant today as it was those many years ago.

He asked what to do about the believers who had not experienced God's power and glory as he himself once had, believers who were settling for the mundane because they had no vision of the marvelous things of God to spur them onward.

"Angel, these are all struggling for want of an ideal!" he cried. "What constitutes real Pentecost? What ideals should be held before the minds of men as the will of God?"

In response, the angel reached for the Bible that Brother Lake had been holding in his hand. Opening it to the book of Acts, he ran his finger down the second page where it is recorded that the Holy Spirit came down from Heaven in tongues of fire. Proceeding through the book of Acts, he continued to point to its outstanding revelations and phenomena.

Then the angel said, "This is Pentecost as God gave it through the heart of Jesus. Strive for this. Contend for this. Teach the people to pray for this. For this and this alone will meet the necessity of the human heart, and this alone will have the power to overcome the forces of darkness. Pray, pray, pray! Teach the people to pray, for prayer and prayer alone—much prayer, persistent prayer—is the door of entrance into the heart of God."

In the light of those words, let me ask again, Do we truly want God's best ?

If we do, then we must contend for it. We must set aside some of the distractions and busyness of this life and give God time. We must meditate the Word until we begin to glimpse the magnificence of God's purposes and plans.

Then we must take hold of them with the passion of Jacob and pray…pray…pray! Even when our flesh cries out and says, "I'm tired…I'm hungry…This hurts…Let it go!" We must keep holding on and saying, "No, I will not quit until I receive the blessing!"

Granted, it is not an easy, painless task. But if we will dare to take it on, we will surely see the glory and power of God. We will experience His best here on earth and afterwards hear the sweetest phrase Heaven can afford. Well done, thou good and faithful servant.